: 650 

H25 
lopy 1 



A 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 



DELI VK RED BY 



J. F. HANSON, 

MACON, GA., 

AT 

ANDERSONVILLE, GEORGIA, 

SATURDAY, MAY 30, 1891. 



'/ appeal to you to make the future a future of implicit obedience to 
laiv, always remembering that upon the integrity of its citizens must 
rest the safety of the State:" 



MACON, GA. : 
NEWS PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

i8qi. 



A 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 



DliLIVI'.RUD I5Y 



J. F. HANSON, 

MACON, (jA., 



AT 



ANDERSONVILLE. GEORGIA, 



SATUF^DAV, MAY 30. IS9I. 



"/ appeal to xoii /<> iiiakr llu: fitfurc a fidnic of niiMidI ahrcficiicc to 
Ia:c, a/u'iirs iciiu-inlu-riii:^ that upon I he iiiU\i:,rily of its dti'^cns iiiiist 
rest the safety of tlic Staled 



MACON, (lA. : 
NEWS n-BI-ISIUNG COMPANY, 

> iSyi. 



r' 



L- 



Hi2r 



Gift 






MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 



Lodics (Did (lOiih'inoi : 

Ivvery student of our history must l)c impressed with the 
conditions that surround us to-day. We are reminded by the 
graves of those who perished in its progress, that within the life- 
time of the generation to which many of us belong, we have 
passed through a great civil war. Of its hatreds and bitterness, 
its sufferings and its wrongs, we have learned from experience, 
or are informed by tradition. These are happily passed, and 
save the excitement and tumult of party conflicts, the clash of 
opposing political forces, the peace that pervades the country is 
as profound as the undisturbed repo.se of the dead. 

In this large assemblage there are men who fought under 
the victorious flag of the Union, men who fc^llowed the illstarred 
banner of the Confederacy, and others, still, who are the sons of 
both, and who were born and have grown to man's estate since 
the close of the war. There are also present many representa- 
tives of that race, which, during the war, was enslaved, though 
now free, and which without fault or responsibility, has con- 
stituted for .seventy-five years the political storm centre of the 
republic. 

We should not meet as Northern men or vSouthern men, as 
soldiers of the Federal or Confederate armies, as masters or 
slaves, as white men or black men, but as citizens of a common 
country, bles.sed with universal freedom and universal peace, 
seeking at this shrine of patriotism, to learn from our past history 
lessons of wisdom and duty for the future. 

I did not suppo.se at the close of the war, that the time would 
ever come when I could, in full sympathy with Federal soldiers 
who survived it, bear an humble part in the exercises of a Fed- 
eral memorial day ; Init during the eventful years that mark the 
period from Appomattox in 1S65 to Ander.sonville in 1891, I 
have learned much that I did not previously know, have 



unlearned niucli that I had been wrongly tan.ght, and have 
recalled many important historical facts that in moments of 
passion or desjiair, were fort^otten. In the light of this experi- 
ence I am liere to say to you, to the people of my vStatc, nn- 
section, my country and the world, that I no longer regard the 
men who fought to preserve the Union, which I sought to 
destroy, or to destroy the Confederacy which I .sought to estab- 
lish, as my enemies. On the contrar\-, I now regard them as m\- 
friends, my benefactors and my brethren, and whatever honors 
my poor powers can bestow upon them here and now, or else- 
where hereafter, shall be theirs, while my citizenship is blessed 
l)y the Union which C.od, in His providence, was too wise to 
permit us to de.stroy. 

This sentiment widely prevails in the South, and is not 
inconsistent with the devotion of the vSouthern people to the 
memory of their dead. We have lived to .see- the storms of 
passion b>- which they were tossed subside. We have lived to 
see our mistake with reference to the value of an in.stitution to 
which they were unwisely attached. We have lived to learn 
anew the blessings of a I^nion which many of them appreciated 
and Ipved even unto death, and which the\- never willingl\- 
opposed. 

They died mainly in defense of their rights, and in the line 
of duty, as they understood both. Their patriotism, their forti- 
tude, their valor, sheds lustre upon the Union, and is the com- 
mon heritage now of all the people of a peaceful and united 
country. The courage with which they fought, and the fearful 
cost at which they were overcome, and the priceless value of 
what they sought to destroy, should admonish us to .study well 
and wi.sely the cau.ses which lay at the bottom of the great revo- 
lution which they .su.stained with such desperate valor, that it 
failed at last only through the mercy of God. 

Throughout the country. North and South, memorial days. 
Federal and Confederate, have grown into prominent, if not per- 
manent features of our national and sectional life. They were 
instituted tor the purpose of honoring our countrymen who fell 
in the war between the States, and to perpetuate on both sides, 
the history, doctrines, principles and sentiments involved in that 
great struggle. 

With reference to the measure of our dut\- to those who laid 



down their li^•cs in defense of the principles \vc maintained, and 
the manner in which we have discharged this dnty, we may con- 
fidently appeal to the intelligent jndgment of mankind. It is to 
be hoped, however, that the sentimental period that natnrally 
followed the war, and on l)oth sides prevented fair discussion of 
its issues, ended with the first quarter of a centtiry of our memo- 
rial historx', and that the time has come when we may, as men, 
review the past with justice, if not entirel\- free from ]>rejudice. 

In studying the history of the slavery question which 
caused the war, perfect frankness is essential to just and wise 
conclusions. Furthermore, the condition of public sentiment. 
North and vSouth, as well as the factional divisions of the times, 
must be taken into account. Through partisan agencies and for 
partisan purposes this history has been grossly perverted, and 
hence there is an entire misunderstanding with the young men 
of the country, with reference to the manner in which, through 
this controversy, the war was produced. We have reached the 
point where the opinions of men, unsupported by the facts of 
hi.story, have ceased to be of value in making uj) an acceptable 
verdict, if we recognize the effects tipon posterity, that the history 
of this question contained in our official publications is certain 
to produce. I appeal to this history in support of whatever 
statements of fact I shall make on this occasion. The causes of 
the past that cannot be tested by this method will not be justified 
by history, and those of the present that cannot ^tand this test 
will surely perish. It will be necessary to touch the adherents 
of both sides in tender places, but I am reminded that the 
surgeon cannot stay the knife, because the delicate flesh of the 
patient quivers, and that cancerous sores on the body politic, like 
tho.se of the human body, must be cut out by the roots, or both 
will l)ecome the victims of certain decay and death. False senti- 
ment from false information, and consequently false passion and 
resentment have been the crowning evils of our past history. In 
this the cunning hand of the demagogue and the agency of the 
fanatic have ever been pre.sent. Neither have sought in the past 
and neither desire now the settlement of any qtiestion in the 
interest of peace. Both live and thrive, and derive their chief 
influence in and from an atmosphere of agitation. This is their 
stock in trade : their life. Through this they have produced one 
war, and are keeping alive the baneful spirit of sectionalism, and 



unless checked, will iiuoh-e us in other conflicts. Let us take 
up the line of histor\- indicated and trace the work of these pes- 
tiferous enemies of peace, whether this work relates to the past, 
the present, or the future. 

During the greater part of the period with w^hich we propo.se 
to deal, the people of the North were divided into three cla.sses. 
First, these who were indifferent a1)out slaver}-; second, those who 
were oppo.sed to slavery on moral grounds, and also to any inter- 
ference with it in the States where it existed on account of the 
constitutional rights of the vSouth in slaves as property, but who 
were opposed to its further extension into the territories ; third, 
the abolitionists, who .were opposed to slavery altogether, and 
favored by any and all means its total extinction. 

In the Southern vStates there were three cla.s.ses, that like- 
wise represented the different shades of opinion touching this 
question. First, those who were oppo.sed to slaverx' on moral 
grounds, and questioned the value of the in.stitution in a material 
point of view; .second, tho.se who believed in slavery, but loved 
the Union more than slavery, and recognizing that much of the 
opposition to the in.stitution North was ba.sed on moral .sentiment, 
were willing to .settle its controversies by conciliation and com- 
promise ; third, those who were oppo.sed to the Union per sc : or 
if not, were neverthele.ss determined to destroy it in the interest 
of slaver\-, and to perpetuate slavery at any and every cost. 

The history of the slavery question and its treatment by the 
confederation, and after the adoption of the Federal Con.stitution 
by the Ignited vStates, is marked by four important epochs prior 
to the war. The first ended with the adoption of the ordinance 
of 17S7 ; the second, with the adoption of the Mis.souri compro- 
mise in 1820; the third, with the compromi.se measures of KS50, 
and the fourth, with the formal repeal of the Missouri compro- 
mi.se in 1.S54, and which it was claimed had been practically 
abrogated by the compromi.se measures of 1850. 

From 1787 to 1854, and certainly until 1850, of the divisions 
indicated in the North, the first was pro])ably the .strongest in 
point of numbers, while in the South the fir.st was the weaker 
party. The second was, in both sections, the mo.st conservative ; 
while in both, the third was the mo.st implicable, intolerant and 
aggressive of all. It is an important fact that .should be borne in 
mind in connection with the slaverv controver.sv and its final 



7 

effects upon the country, that the hrst twc) classes North and 
South, while recognizing the gravity of the problem with which 
they were dealing, never contemplated its settlement by other 
than legal and just methods; while the third parties North and 
South were impatient of legal restraint, and were determined to 
abrogate the Constitution and defy the laws, whenever and 
wherever either conflicted with the triumph of their principles. 
Northern abolitionists as.sailed the property rights of vSouthern 
men in the in.stitution of slavery, which rights were guaranteed 
by our Constitution and laws, and Southern men advocated, as a 
remedy for this real or imaginary wrong, the disruption of the 
Union — e.s.sential then and now to the pro.sperity and happiness 
of the people of the whole country. If there was the force and 
influence of moral conviction that slavery was wrong on the one 
hand, or that human rights, which men will always defend, 
were in jeopard>- on the other ; moral fanaticism was as im])otent 
to right the one as sectional aggression was to protect the other ; 
and while the abolition crusade against slavery was inspired b\- 
moral .sentiment, and its defense was carried on as a matter of 
right, we cannot forget that the fires kindled by fanaticism and 
fed by .sectional hate and bitterness, were not subdued until a 
continent was drenched with blood. 

It is absurd to say that the North or the vSouth was wholly 
right, or that either was entirely wrong. Both were right in 
l^art and wrong in part, and both were responsible for allowing 
mischievous and aggressive minorities to involve them in a quar- 
rel, which resulted in war, when the question at i.ssue was sus- 
ceptible, as often demonstrated, of lawful and peaceful settlemetit. 

The conservative and patriotic men of both sections were 
deeply concerned for the final fate of the Union : while all classes 
at the South were sentimentally, if not vitall\- interested in 
slavery. For this reason, vSouthern men had two great interests 
to guard, while their Northern brethren were not forced b}- their 
own welfare, to look after but one. 

The conservatism of vSouthern men, like the spirit of justice 
displayed b\- Northern men in public life, characterized for a long 
time their public utterances and actions touching the question 
of slavery. Both recognized the preservation of the Union as 
the one object for which all should labor, as the one interest to 
be maintained above all others, and both .saw, in slaverv, the 



oiilv serious dan.^cr thai. lhixat.encd it. While this was true of 
the couvictions of both with refereuce to the value of the Union 
in preserving the rights and liberties of the people, the great 
majority of the vSouth, until the close of the period marked by 
the compromise measures, which ended with the compromise of 
1836, saw that the preservation of the Union was necessary to 
the defense and perpetuation of slavery. 

That the vSouth was not always infatuated with slavery ; 
that she was indifferent at least about its introduction into new 
territory, is shown by the history of the ordinance of 1787. This 
ordinance, referring to the territory north and west of the Ohio 
river, prohibited slavery or involuntary servitude in said terri- 
tory. Webster, in his reply to Hayne, claimed its authorship for 
Nathin Dane, of Massachusetts, but Thos. H. Benton, quoted the 
journals of the Congress of the Confederation to show that it was 
introduced into Congress by Mr. Jefferson, who, Benton claims, 
was also its author, and that it was pa.ssed by the votes of all tlie 
States present, and by all of the votes of each of the States, with 
one exception, and this was from a Northern vState. 

In the " Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government,"" by 
Mr. Davis, the following statement occurs, with reference to this 
important transaction : " Virginia, it is well known, in the year 
1784, ceded to the United States — then united only by the 
original articles of confederation — her vast possessions northwest 
of the Ohio, from which the great vStates of Ohio, Indiana, 
Michigan, Illinois. Wisconsin and part of Minnesota, have since* 
l)een formed. In 1787, before the adoption of the Federal Con- 
stitution, the celebrated 'ordinance," for the government of the 
Northwestern Territories, was adopted by the Congress, with the 
full con.sent, and, indeed, at the express instance of Virginia. 
This ordinance included six definite 'articles of compact between 
the original vStates and the people and States in said territor>-,' 
which were to ' forever remain unalterable, iniless b\- common 
con.sent." The sixth of these articles ordains that ' there shall be 
neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in said territory, other- 
wise than in the ])unishment of crimes, whereof the party shall 
have been duh' convicted.""" 

With the invention of the cotton gin, and the consequent 
increa.se in the production of cotton, the value of slaver>- 
increased, and as a natural con.sequence. the people of the South 



be,i;aii to place a higher estimate upon it. Their iiUerest in tlie 
institution was augmented or decreased just in proportion as it 
was profitable or unprofitable, which, according to the last speech 
of Mr. Ingalls, on the race question, in the United States Senate, 
was in perfect accord with the experience of New England upon 
this point. 

As the value of slaver}- increased, the South put a higher 
estimate upon it, guarded it with greater care, and became more 
and more interested in privileges and restrictions with reference 
to its extension. For this reason, when the Territory of Missouri, 
which was acquired with the purchase of Louisiana from France, 
applied for admission to the Xhiion as a slave State, the repre- 
sentatives of the vSouth in Congress, insisted upon her admission. 
This Territory lay west and north of the Ohio ri\-er, from which, 
by a broad con.struction, slavery was excluded by the ordiriance 
of 17.S7, although it was not included in the territory the ordin- 
ance was passed to cover, as it did not belong to the Ihiited 
States at that time. After a long and bitter struggle, Mi.s.souri 
was admitted to the I'nion as a slave State ; but upon the condi- 
tion, as a compromise, that slavery should be thereafter ex- 
cluded north of thirty-.six degrees, thirty minutes north 
latitude. 

This settlement of the question was permitted to stand tor 
thirt_\- years, and until California, which was a portion ot the 
territory taken from Mexico, applied for admission to the Union 
as a free vState. 

It was claimed by the vSouth that the line established by the 
Mi.ssouri compromise should be extended to the Pacific Ocean, 
thus making territory open to the introduction of .slavery of the 
greater portion of California, which was applying for .statehood 
under an anti-.slavery constitution. She was finally admitted to 
the Union as a free State, but her admission, Hke that of Mis- 
souri, was a compromi.se measure, which contained provisions 
with reference to slavery as follows: Fir.st, the establishment of 
Territorial governments in New Mexico and Utah without an\- 
restriction as to slavery ; .second, a declaration that slavery should 
not be abolished in the District of Columbia ; third, the prohibi- 
tion of the slave trade in the District : and fourth, a more effect- 
ive fugitive slave law. 

At this distance from tlie times in which these important 



measures were passed, it is (liilicult to explain on wliat consistent 
rule of reason or right the South insisted upon the extension to 
the Pacific Ocean of the territorial line established by the Mis- 
souri compromise, as affecting the territory taken from Mexico, 
after opposing the extension of the line established by the 
ordinance of 1787 over the territory acquired from F'rance. In 
the light of history, looking to the interest of the vSouth, and 
upon the presumption that slavery was a necessity, it was a mis- 
take, in so far as it was intended to increase the spread of 
slavery. As a matter of policy it was fatal, as subsequent history 
shows that " the aggressiveness of the slave power '" was held up 
to the people of the North as one of the most potent factors in 
creating sentiment against the tendencies and arousing opposi- 
tion to the institution of slavery. This history also furnishes a 
striking example of the spirit of conciliation, concession and 
compromise displayed by Northern representatives in Congress, 
for the purpose of preserving the Union, no matter what was 
done about slavery. Up to the time the compromise n;easures of 
1850 were adopted, the conservatism of Northern and Southern 
men had saved the Union without destroying slavery. This was 
the last occasion upon which their coun,sels were to triumph. 
They were soon to be pushed aside and the countr\' was to be 
turned over to men, who, through madness or foil}-, |)lunged it 
into revolution and war. 

During the administration of Mr. Pierce, although both 
I)olitical parties were pledged not to re-open the slavery question, 
and he had renewed this pledge on his own behalf in his first 
message to Congress, the Mis.souri compromise — practically 
abrogated by the compromise of 1850— was formally repealed by 
one of the provisions of the famous Kansas-Nebraska bill. The 
pa.s.sage of this bill, as an administration measure, rekindled the 
sectional fires of 1850, and marked two important eras — the 
beginning of the end o^ slavery, and the formation of the 
Reiniblican party. The people of the North saw that the work 
of three quarters of a century in restricting the spread of 
slavery had, within four years of the compromise of 1850. been 
swept away. They regarded the repeal ot the Missouri compro- 
mise as an act of bad faith on the part oi the South, and despair- 
ing of any permanent settlement of this question by concessions, 
they resolved, without reference to pa.st differences, to use the 



1 1 

strength of numbers, which Ihey possessed, to restrict the fur- 
ther spread of slaver\-, in the interest of Union and peace. 

The Repubhcan platform of i860, upon which Mr. Lincoln 
was nominated and elected, set out as its first declaration, that: 
" The propriety and necessity for its organization had been 
fully established by the history of the four preceding years, 
which, more than ever before demand its peaceful and constitu- 
tional triumph." 

In order to assure the conservative men of the North that it 
was not proposed to interfere with slavery where it already 
legally existed, in its fourth declaration of principles, it re-affirm- 
ed the doctrine of non-interference with slavery in the slave 
vStates, and denounced in.surrection and violence as follows: "That 
the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especial- 
Iv the right of each State, to order and control its own domestic 
institutions, according to its own judgment exclusively, is 
es.sential to that balance of powers on which tl\e perfection and 
endurance of our political fabric depends, and we denounce the 
lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any vState or Territory, 
no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes." 
The final history of this great contest is told in few words. Mr. 
I^incoln was elected, the Southern States seceded, the war ensued, 
the Union was saved, and sla\-ery and secession were buried in a 
common grave. 

Passing from the causes of the war, it is proper to consider 
the motives and methods through which it was produced, and 
what it accomplished. At the outset, candor compels the .state- 
ment, that, during the entire controversy with reference to 
slaver\', the Federal government did not, by a single act, up to 
the time of the war, interfere in the slightest degree with slavery 
in anv State where it existed. On the contrary, it refused to do 
so, defining the authority of both the State and Federal govern- 
ments touching this question, in the following resolution, which 
was pa.s.sed by the fir.st Ignited vStates Congress in 1790: 

"Resolved, That Congress have no authority to interfere in 
the emancipation of .slaves, or in the treatment of them in any 
of the States, it remaining with the .several States alone to pro- 
vide rules and regulations therein, which humanity and good 
policy require." 

This action was taken upon the presentation of petitions 



from Pennsylvania and other vStates, praying that Congress 
shonkl "Promote the aboHtion of slavery by such powers as it 
possessed." This resolution was ever afterwards regarded as the 
law upon this subject, b>- which the Federal authorities were 
to be guided. Neither did the Federal government, on any 
occasion, .seek to escape the duty laid upon it, of protecting the 
vSonth in the property of its .slaves. As there was no evidence of 
an>- disposition to interfere with .slavery in any of the States where 
it exi.sted, or to evade the responsibility or duty of its protection 
in the interest of the.se States, secession was not demanded by 
the necessities of the case, for the .safety of .slavery in the slave 
States. If the right existed, which I did not believe then and do 
not believe now, it could not have been wisely invoked for the 
protection of slaver}- in the slave States. By reason of exten- 
sive borders, it would have been impossible for the Sotithern Con- 
federacy, predicated on slavery, to have protected it against the 
people of the North solidified against it by the war, and dominat- 
ing the policies of a government so powerful as that of the 
United vStates. This view of the case was entertained by South- 
ern men in i860, and, as many believe, by a majority of Southern 
men. Furthermore, the controversy within the I'uion was not 
with reference to slaver}' in the slave States, but over the right of 
the South to introduce it into the territories. If its defense and 
protection in the slave States was impossible inside of a Union of 
friendly States, and between which there was no controversy, ex- 
cept with reference to its extension, it was the height of folly to 
suppose that the States opposed to its extension in the territories 
of the Union, would surrender any portion of their territory to a 
foreign power for this purpose. The South did not contemplate 
the acquisition of any of the territories by conquest, nor that they 
would be peacefully surrendered to her, and yet without them, 
without the privilege of introducing slavery into new territory, 
she was waging war for less than nothing, if the Union, as I 
believe, gave better guarantees for the protection of .slaver}- than 
the Confederacy ever offered, or could have offered. In support 
of this view of the case, that the ostensible purpose was to 
defend .slaver}- in the slave States, the South, through her fore- 
most secession leaders, announced, again and again, that "All she 
asked for was to be let alone." 

Whatever may l)e said with reference to the right of an}- 



of the original States to secede, this right, if it existed at all, did 
not l>eloiig to those .States organized from territory purchased 
with money from the United States treasury. Of this class of 
vStates there were seven in the Confederacy, and this fact was 
alluded to by Mr. Ju.stice Lamar, in his Calhoun oration at 
Charleston some years ago. The theory of .secessionists was, that 
the money which purcha.sed this territory belonged to the people 
of all the States, and, when these States were admitted into the 
Union, they came in upon the same basis, and with all the rights 
and privileges of the original thirteen. This was true, but a por- 
tion of the people did not have the right, arbitrarily, to take the 
property that belonged to all of them. Neither did admission 
to the Union upon terms of equality with the original States 
carrv with it the right to secede, for no such right was admitted 
as belonging to the original vStates. If it had exi.sted. Congress 
would have revoked it in admitting the States formed from terri- 
tory purchased by the Federal government. It is preposterous 
to suppose that the government would have consented to vest 
these territories with the right to take themselves out of the 
Union, by virtue of their admi.ssion into the Union. X'pon the 
secession theory of their acquisition of rights by virtue of admis- 
sion to the Union, they could dissever themselves from it b> 
joining it. when this could not be accompli.shed legally in any 
other way. 

There were other rea.sons than those assigned to the people 
ot the South, why some of the Southern leaders desired sece.s.sion. 
With or without slavery, they wanted to destroy the Union. In 
a .speech delivered at Richmond, April lo, 1861, after South 
Carolina had secede, Roger A. Pryor .said: "Gentlemen, I thank 
you especially that you have at last annihilated this accursed 
Union," and again. "For my part, gentlemen, if Abraham Lin- 
coln and Hannibal Hamlin to-morrow were to abdicate their 
offices, and were to give me a blank sheet of paper to write the con- 
ditions of re-annexation to the defunct Union, I would .scornfully 
spurn the overture." This language indicates the spirit with 
which the extremists of the South, the third division, were in- 
spired. They were doubtful about but one thing, and that was, 
the action of the great body of our people. But the methods to 
be employed in forcing them into secession were also indicated 
bv Mr. Prvor. who further .said: "Do not mi.strust Virginia. As 



14 

sure as to morrow's sun will rise upon us, just so sure will she l)c 
a nienil)er ol" Ihis vSouthcrn Confederation; and I tell \ou, gentle- 
men, what will put her in the Southern Confederation in less than 
an hour b\- Shrewsbury clock — strike a hloii'. The very moment 
blood is shed, old X'irj^inia will make common cause with her 
vSouthern sisters of the vSouth." This idea, if original with Mr. 
Pryor, was entertained l)y others. Mr. Clemens, of Alabama, in 
speaking at Huntsville, in 1864, said: "In 1S61, shortly after the 
Confederate government was put in operation, I was in Mont- 
gomery. One day I stepped into the office of the Secretary of 
War, Cieneral Walker, and found Mr. Davis, Mr. Memminger, 
Mr. Benjamin, Mr. Oilchrist, a member of our legislature from 
I.owndes count\-, and a number of other prominent gentlemen. 
They were discussing the propriety of immediately opening fire 
upon Fort vSumpter, to which General Walker, the Secretary of 
War, appeared to be opposed. Mr. Gilchrist said to him, 'vSir, 
tmless you sprinkle blood in the face of Alabamians, they will be 
l)ack in the I'nion in less than ten days.' The next day General 
Beauregard opened his batteries on Sumpter, and Alabama was 
saved to the Confederac}'." In the estimation of this class of 
Southern men, the conservatism of the people of Virginia and 
Alabama, and their devotion to the l^nion, however much the>' 
were interested in and devoted to the institution of slavery, 
would cause them to hesitate, if they did not finally refuse to adopt 
the doubtful expedient, and, if possible, the still more doubtful 
principle of secession. Hence they were anxious for the shed- 
ding of blood, in order that madness might accomplish the work 
that reason could not sanction. 

There were other motives still, by which extremists among 
the Southern leaders were influenced, although these motives 
were carefully hidden from the people of the South. These were 
])urel>- partisan and political, and were evidenced by prominent 
Cotton States" secessionists, who, according to current reports at 
the time, met in Richmond, Va., years in advance of secession, 
to consider the formation of a Confederac\-, to be composed ex- 
clusively of the Cotton States, and in which they certainly con- 
templated enjoyment of the greatest powers and highest honors 
this Confederacy could bestow. They were impatient of the con- 
servatism of the border states, and ambitious for supreme and 
permanent fMid. political ascendancy and power. If the original 



15 

l)ur|)«)se lo form a CoUun .Stales' Conrederac}- was aftLrwards 
changed, it was no doubt l)ecanse the scepter of intellectualit>', 
wielded ])y a brilliant, arrogant, and intolerant minority, was 
relied u])on to measurably- intimidate and silence the border 
States, until the time came to test upon their hesitating people 
the potent influence of blood. 

It was understood Ijv Mr. Pr>or and the faction for which he 
spoke, that ])atriotic men of both sections were earnestly at work 
to save the I'nion and avoid war. The\' also understood that 
the sliedding of blood, if it did not defeat their patriotic and 
humane purposes, would render still more difficult the task 
they had undertaken. At the time Mr. Pryor was speaking at 
Richmond, what was proposed by Congress as the thirteenth 
amendment to the Constitution was pending before the legislatures 
of many of the vStates. This measure was the result of patient 
and earnest work on the part of a joint Congressional committee, 
the purpose of which was to grant the South alxsolute securit>' 
for the future, for slavery in the slave vStates. This amendment 
declared that " no amendment shall be made to the Constitution 
which will authorize or gi\e to Congress tlie power to abolish or 
interfere within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, 
including persons held to labor or ser\'ice, b)- the laws of said 
States." It pas.sed the House l)y a majority of 133 to 65, and the 
vSenate by 24 to 12. Mr. Blaine .states in his "Twenty Years in 
Congress,"" that only 12 out of 25 Republican vSenators voted 
against it. If the shedding of blood could have been prevented 
for three months longer, the spirit manifested in this amendment 
lo the Constitution would have prevailed, and we would ha\e 
escaped the waste and ruin of a great war. 

vSlavery might have been abolished in time, but emancipa- 
tion would not have been immediate or compulsory, or witlunit 
compensation. 

But there is another side to this (prestion, which the truth 
of hi.story recptircs should be presented. If vSouthern extremists 
were opposed to the Union, or if they were not opposed to the 
Union but were infatuated with slavery, and after threatening its 
destruction on many occasions, finally made the attempt to 
destroy it in the interest of slavery, there were men at the North 
who denounced the Union as a " league wnth death and a coven- 
ant with hell." If the South opposed the -Union becau.se it 



i6 

interfered willi the extension or jeopardized the safet}' of slavery, 
the aboHtionists of the North hated it because it was a defense 
and protection to slavery. These factions, representing antago- 
nistic purposes with reference to slavery, desired to destroy the 
Union in order to destroy slavery, and to destroy the I'nion in 
order to save slavery. 

The purpose to destroy' the Union was an illegal purpo.se, no 
matter where, or by whom, or for what purpo.se it was enter- 
tained. It matters not that opposition to slavery was based upon 
moral sentiment. vSlaver}- was a domestic institution in many of 
the States, and the Constitution gave to ihese States the right to 
regulate their domestic institutions in their own way. For this 
reason, any and all attempts on the part of individuals, commu- 
nities or States to interfere with slavery in the slave States were 
in opposition to the supreme law of the land. The great body 
of the people North, while they were doubtless opposed to 
slavery, were al.so oppo.sed to the violent and revolutionary 
methods which Wendall Phillips and his coadjutors favored for 
its destruction. If it was an evil, and upon this point all men 
were entitled to their opinions, this fact did not warrant unlawful 
methods for its eradication. The great body of the people South, 
while interested in and devoted to the institution of .slavery, loved 
the Union, and were opposed to any attempt to destroy it in the 
interest of slaver}-. The misfortune was, that the people of both 
sections did not assert themselves and silence the turbulent, 
aggre.ssive and lawless minorities, who were leading the peoj^le 
into re^•olution and war. The graves of five hundred thousand 
men who perished in our great struggle measure the needless 
sacrifice of human life to this lawless .spirit of sectionalism and 
fanaticism, which should have been crushed in its inception by 
both State and Federal power. 

. The truth of history al.so recpiires the statement that present 
imjire.ssions, especially with young men, with reference to the 
unanimity with which the people of the vSouth endorsed the doc- 
trine of secession, or volunteered to fight for the Confederacy, 
are altogether erroneous. I do not believe that a majority of the 
l^eople of the Cotton States would ever have voted for .secession 
as a primal proposition, in advance of an>- other steps in this 
direction. I am confident this is true with reference to the peo- 
l)le of Georgia, In choosing delegates to our State Convention, 



17 

which passed the ordinances of secession, there were a large 
numl)er of counties in which the issue was never made. Com- 
promise tickets were arranged, composed of men who held con- 
flicting vieAvs with reference to this question, or of trusted men 
wdio did not commit themselves upon it. There is no evidence 
that this was the result of any other influence besides the dis- 
turbance and confusion in the public mind, with reference to the 
safety of slavery, and the value of secession as a measure for its 
defense. When the Convention met, the gravity of the situation 
was appreciated by men of all shades of opinion; but, in the 
struggle that ensued, the appeals to .sectional hatred, and the 
fears of tho.se who felt that .slavery was in danger, succeeded, 
and secession triumphed. 

If, up to this time, men differed about the right of a State to 
secede, or the policy of secession, if the right existed, or if the.se 
differences of opinion existed afterwards, there was unanimity of 
l)urpo.se in sustaining the Confederacy, by moral support, if not 
by personal sacrifice and service ; because, whatever opinions 
may have been entertained as to the be.st means of defending 
slavery, whether in the Union or out of the Union, it was 
apparent to all men that the subjugation of the South meant the 
end of slavery. 

The men of the vSouth did not all volunteer to fight for the 
Confederacy, as the people of to-day are led to suppose, b)' the 
number of surviving Confederate soldiers who are holding office 
and otherwise laying claim to the consideration of vSouthern men, 
by reason of their service in the armies of the Confederacy. We 
have a great many more soldiers now than we had in 1862 or in 
1864, if the highest official authority in the Confederacy at the 
time is to be credited. The war had not been in progress a year, 
when Mr. Davis asked the Confederate Congress to pass the now 
famous conscript law, which was unnecessary if Southern men 
were volunteering to fight for the Confederacy, and which was a 
reflection upon their patriotism if they were volunteering. This 
law was remarkable also, in that it completely overturned the 
sovereignty of tlie States, which was the cardinal doctrine of 
secession. In the language. of Mr. Stephens, in his great speech 
at Savannah, after the Confederate Constitution had been adopted, 
slavery was the " Corner .stone of the Confederacy." The war 
was waged in the interest of .slavery, and the conscript law not 



i8 

only ignored the sovereignly of the vStates, but was made the 
crowning infamy of the century, by a provision that exempted 
from military service, in a war for the defense of slavery, every 
man who owned twenty slaves. That it was neccessary to resort 
to conscription, or al)andon the struggle to establish the Confed- 
eracy, there was no doubt, if we credit Mr. Davis with an intelli- 
gent knowledge of the situation. If statesmanship had ruled the 
counsels of the Confederacy, the war would have ended the 
moment conscription became necessar3% 

If the failure of Southern men to volunteer necessitated 
a measure so extraordinar}^ as the conscript law, upon the testi- 
mony of Mr. Davis afterwards, it failed to bring the relief for 
which it was proposed, or to correct the evil at which it was 
aimed. In 1S64 he made a speech in the Bapti.st church in the 
city of Macon, in which he stated that it required half the officers 
and men enrolled in the Confederate armies, for provost duty in 
the towns and cities in the rear, in order to keep the other half in 
the front. I heard that speech, and there are other men living 
who heard it, and some of them are probably present to-day. If 
this statement w^as true it sustains my view, that the war was 
not only brought on by a minority, but that the defen.se of the 
Soirth was also left to a minority. If the statement was untrue, 
it was the foulest calumny ever uttered against the officers and 
men of the Confederate army, and Mr. Davis was incapable of 
doing them this great injustice. lyike the necessity for con- 
scription, this situation demanded that statesmanship should 
save something for the South, while negotiation and compro- 
mise were possible, and in view of the speedy collap.se of the 
Confederacy, which was surel}' coming. If reason had not been 
dethroned, who can doubt that our leaders would, in view^ of 
the coming calamity, have endeavored to break the force of utter 
defeat and unconditional surrender. 

In this connection, and for the purpose of showing the mad- 
ness and folly that prevented negotiations that would have saved 
the vSouth much that she afterwards lost, I propose to make a 
statement, never before publicly made, so far as I am informed, 
but which can be substantiated by two distinguished Georgians, 
who yet live. The day after the battle of Sharpsburgh, Thomas 
R. R. Cobb, who was a Brigadier General in the Army of North- 
ern Virginia, went to the headquarters of his brother, General 



19 

Howell Co1)b, and told him that it was evident the war would 
continue, if something was not done bj- negotiations to end it, 
until one side or the other was exhausted, and it was plain that the 
South would be first exhausted. He proposed that they should go 
to General I^ee, and suggest that he should send a note to General 
McClellan, asking for a conference looking to negotiation to termi- 
nate the war. When thej^ reached General L,ee's headquarters, 
they found him sitting at his desk, with a note in his hand, 
which he had just received from General McClellan, requesting 
the return of the horse, equipments and side-arms of General 
Kearne} , who had been killed a few days before at Chantill}', 
Virginia. General I^ee doubted the wisdom of such a move- 
ment at that time, thinking that a better occasion to inaugurate 
it would be just after a Confederate victory, and, furthermore, 
was of the opinion that it would be condemned at Richmond. 
Howell Cobb stated to Crcneral Lee, that if he was permitted to 
draft a reph' to the note of General McClellan, which General 
L,ee had read to them, that he would guarantee, without making 
the proposal he and Tom Cobb had suggested, to bring a proposi- 
tion for a conference from General McClellan. General Lee 
promised to think the matter over, and to send for them if he 
concluded to do anything, and the Cobbs left him, and, as Howell 
Cobb afterwards stated. General L,ee was very sad. 

Howell and Tom Cobb were both secessionists, but they 
saw the doom that was impending over the South, and desired to 
avert it. They never heard from General Lee afterwards upon 
this subject. The moment was lost, the war went on, and the 
South, taking coun.sel of men who were confident without reason, 
followed the course marked out for her, and staked and lost all 
on the future termination of a conflict, which, to the minds of 
Howell and Tom Cobb, was decided in September, 1S62. 

Upon the Federal side of this question, the purposes of those 
who were conducting the war, have been intentionally misrepre- 
.sented North and South. With Mr. Liucoln and the great 
majority of the Repul)lican party, the Union was the object, and 
emancipation was but an incident of the war, while, in the South 
the defense and perpetuation of .slavery constituted the object, 
while secession and the Confederacy were merely incidents of 
.slavery. If public sentiment North was finally solidified in oppo- 
sition to slavery, by reason of the war waged upon the Union in 



20 

the interest of slaver}', the result was favorable to the al)olitionists, 
but was lieyoiul their power to produce, so long as the institution 
was guarded and defended by the Union. 

If the South was alarmed by the election of Mr. lyincoln. 
then, of all times, it behooved her to hold her position in the 
Union, thus retaining the support of the conservative men of the 
North, who were certain to withdraw this support whenever the 
vSouth attempted to break up the Union. In support of this sug- 
gestion, the adoption of the thirteenth amendment to the Consti- 
tution, emancipating the slaves, is an evidence that the friends of 
the South in the Union became her opponents when she got out, 
or attempted to get out of the Union. 

The purposes of the Republican party, as the war party, are 
shown by the first thirteenth amendment to the Constitution, 
proposed in January 1861, as well as by the platform upon which 
Mr. Liucoln was elected, and, furthermore, b}- the immortal di.s- 
patch that he sent to Horace Greely, on August 22, 1862, which 
I beg to quote in full : " If there be those who would not save 
tiie Union unless they could, at the same time, save slavery, I do 
not agree with them. If there be those who would not .save the 
Union unless they could, at the same time, destroy .slavery, I do 
not agree with them. My paramount object is to save the Union, 
and not either to .save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union 
without freeing any slave I would do it; if I could .save it by free- 
ing all the .slaves, I would do it, and if by freeing .some and 
leaving others alone, I would do that. What I do about slavery 
and the colored race I do because I believe it helps to .save this 
Union; and what I forbear I forbear because I do not believe it 
would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I 
believe what I am doing hurts the cause ; and I .shall do more 
whenever I believe doing more will help the cause." The 
Federal Government did not wage war upon the South for the 
purpo.se of destroN'ing .slavery. It was a war for the Union, and, 
if the Union had not been involved, the people of the North 
would not have volunteered to fight the South. The}' would 
never have volunteered for the purpo.se of destroying slavery in 
the Union, for it is a matter of history, that with the Union 
imperiled some of the States were compelled to resort to drafts, 
in order to .supply their quotos of troops; and these drafts, in 
some cases, were resisted with riot and Idoodshed. 



21 

In view of this hi.stor}', the African race is indebted to the 
secessionists of the South for emancipation. It came in the 
interest of Union, and was a military necessity, just as the 
enfranchisement of the race was a political necessity. The slave 
owners of the South are also indebted to the same men for the 
loss of the money value of slavery. If the Union had not been 
assailed, slavery in the slave States would have been perpetual, 
or emancipation would have come through the voluntary action 
of Southern slave holders. 

There are those who believe that the war was necessarx', and 
had to come. If the conditions that provoked it were right, or 
if they were unavoidable, this is true. If these conditions were 
wrong ; if they could have been avoided by doing right, it is not 
true. However this may be, it came, and, whether it was born 
of necessity, or arose from human passion and foil}', its results 
have pa.ssed into history, and, while we cannot change them if 
we would, this history is full of valuable instruction for the 
future. 

In the language of Mr. Justice I^amar, the war accomplished 
two things : It established the " indissolubility of the American 
Union," and the " universality of American freedom." If, of the 
struggle to preserve the Union universal freedom was a natural 
consequence, which the Union leaders foresaw, their opinions 
coincided with the great majority of Southern men upon this 
point. If they did not foresee it, and tavored it, because they 
could not resist it, they builded wiser than they knew ; for, in 
this great stroke, although it fell with crushing effect upon the 
vSouth, the only adequate cause for future sectional divisions was 
forever removed. It gave and will yet justif\- the assurance of 
lasting peace between the sections, and has already proven a boon 
to the vSouth, in her growing diversity, through which African 
freeman are contributing to Southern prosperity, more than it 
was ever possible for us to derive from African slavery. Union 
and freedom were not only accomplished as results of the war 
but, in a quarter of a century from its close, these results are 
approved by the people of the South. We would not dissolve 
the Union if we could ; we would not restore slavery if we could. 
Because this is true, we confess that our estimate of slavery was 
wrong. We care nothing al)out the right of secession now, 
because it is not valuable as a theory for the defense of slavery, 



22 

and it never had any other vahie. If we are sincere, we also 
confess that tlie Confederacy was a mistake, and hence to ns it is 
nothing but a memory, a sentiment, hallowed only by the blood 
of brave and noble men, sacrificed in its defense. In our love for 
the Union, we reject the doctrine of secession, and, in our 
approval of universal freedom, we repudiate the system of human 
bondage the Confederacy sought to perpetuate. 

If an indissoluble Union and universal freedom are facts 
estal)lished by the war, and approved by the South, if these 
questions were settled by the war, there is another question that 
grew out of the war, and to the solution of which, in patriotic 
wisdom, the people of the South should address themselves, and 
that is the race question. We cannot profitabl}' come to its 
discu.ssion as partisans seeking the interests of party ; or as 
sectionalists, investing it with the prejudices of a long and bitter 
controversy which naturally gather about it. We' must bring to 
its consideration a patriotism broad enough to defend the 
institutions of the country, becau.se they are founded upon law; 
and a spirit of justice that will concede to all men all of their 
natural and constitutional rights. No question can be settled so 
as to remain .settled, unless it is settled right. No question, in 
the language of Bishop Haygood, " can be settled by a policy 
of repression." The interests of the white men and the colored 
men of the South demand its settlement, and the interests of both 
require that this .settlement .shall be legally and honestly 
accompli.shed, and, when it is settled in this way, the rights and 
interests of both will be protected, and, until it is settled in this 
way, the rights and interests of both will be jeopardized. 

The negro is not responsible for re.sidence or citizenship in 
this country. He was brought a captive to our .shores, and sold 
into slavery. In patient submi.ssion, he wore the chains that 
were riveted upon him, and remained a pa.ssive witness for fifty 
years of the .struggle he innocently provoked. He did not ask 
for freedom, nor the ballot . with which to protect it. For his 
presence and his condition at all times, white men have been and 
are yet responsible. Through their avarice he was made a slave ; 
as the result of their quarrels he was made a freeman. He is not 
responsible ; he is not to blame. Neither does the responsibility 
for his introduction here rest alone upon Southern or Northern 
men. Both had a hand in the slave trade, and some of the people 



of both sections approved and some in both opposed it. He was 
brought to the South in the ships of New I^ngland, and sold to 
our ancestors. Of this, history has kept the record, as of the war 
and its causes, and we cannot change it. While he came as a 
slave, he is now a freeman, and, nominally, a citizen, having been 
theoretically invested with the suffrage. This has raised the 
question of his influence, and its effects upon the white man's 
property and civilization, and the white man's right to govern for 
the protection of both. His investment with the right of 
suffrage has not so far carried with it its practical exercise. He 
is disfranchised in many States of the South. This is affecting 
not only his rights, but the status of political parties. While 
denying him the right to vote, the Democratic party assumes his 
representation, not by his will, but against his will. The political 
power and influence in the electoral college and in Congress, 
based upon his presence and citizenship, are wielded against him 
and against the Republican party, the party with which he 
naturally desires to vote. In proportion as the power of the 
Democratic party is augmented by this policy, the strength of 
the Republican party is decrea.sed. This condition of things is a 
fraud upon the negroes and white men of the South, and upon j 
the people of the country at large. It is destroying the integrity \ 
of the ballot Ijox, and breeding contempt for law. In all these •' 
aspects, this is a serious question. Its settlement is demanded 
not in the interest of the negro alone, but in the interest of the i 
people of the whole country. We cannot preserve our institutions ( 
unless the ballot box, the supreme arbiter of all public questions, ( 
is kept pure. We cannot debase it for the purpose of deleating ■ 
negro suffrage, and keep it pure for other purposes. If fraud is | 
.sanctioned for one purpose, it will be practiced for others. There ; 
is no half way ground between vice and virtue, between right, 
and wrong. 

I am not called upon to discuss the policy of negro suffrage. 
Grant that it was a mistake, and even a crime, it is founded upon 
law, which must be obeyed or resisted. I neither deny nor 
underestimate its evils, but they cannot be eradicated by fraud, 
without entailing others of larger influence. The great majority 
of Southern white men want honest elections, but they fear negro 
domination. Through this fear, they have been politically 
enslaved. The negro will never dominate the Anglo-Saxon in 
the vSouth or elsewhere. He may be elected from a few counties 
to the legislatures of the Southern States, and from a few districts 



24 

to Congress. Better this than the rule of fraud through which 
intolerant, ignorant and corrupt politicians are enslaving white 
men. It is best for the negro that white men should rule. 
Leaving out of the question race characteristics, they are best 
capacitated, by experience and intelligence, for the responsibilities 
of government. But white men must rule by law, and in the 
interest of justice. We must substitute a white rule of law for a 
white rule of fraud. When this is done both races will divide, 
and the South will take her place in the Union, by the side of 
other sections, free to consider the great questions that from time 
to time mu.st be decided, upon their merits and for the public 
interest, without being dominated by ignorance, through fear of 
negro supremacy. The States have the power to settle this 
question, as the right to determine the qualifications of voters yet 
remains with them. They did not lose this right, or an}- other 
that they ever had, by the war. So long as we do not discriminate 
against the negro on account of race, color or previous condition, 
otir laws, however stringent, will be above criticism. 

The Australian ballot system, and honest registration and 
election laws, will ctrre the evil of fraudulent elections, and, with 
this done, the race question will settle itself. 

When the people of the South address themselves to this 
question honestly and conscientiously, for the purpose of 
settlement, there will be but one difhciilty in the way, and that 
will be the condition of the white people in the black districts of 
the South. At this point all right thinking men are troubled. 
I apprehend, however, that if the proposition was carried before 
the country in good faith, the people of the North would consent 
for the government to ptirchase the lands in the.se districts at a 
fair price from the whites, and sell them to the blacks upon long 
time, and thus test the value of colonization at home in the 
settlement of this problem, which lies heav}' upon the hearts of 
the people of all sections of the country. However this may be, 
we mu.st appeal to the moral .sense of the people of the South to 
right the great wrong of fraud upon the ballot box. 

The duties and responsibilities of this occasion have imposed 
upon me the unpleasant task of reviewing an unplea.sant hi.story, 
as well as a delicate and difficult sitttation at present. Our past 
misfortunes have come from disobedience to written constitutions, 
and adherence to what we have been pleased to call higher law. 
By the graves of half a million of men, wlio.se lives were .sacrificed 
in a war that grew out of insubordination to law, by the 
sufferings of broken-hearted women left childless or in widowhood, 
by the wailings ot orphanage, by the sorrows this great nation 
has borne, by the Union we love, and which blesses us all, I 
appeal to you to make the future a future of implicit obedience 
to law, always remembering that upon th.e integrity of its citizens 
rests the .safety of the State, 



"THE WAR IS OVER-LET US HAVE PEACE. 



" I 



(Banquet Army of tlie Tennessee, Palmer HouseJ 
Chicago, Thursdiiy eveuinfi', October 8, 1801.) ] 



In resiionse to the toast, "The War Is Over— I.el 
Us Have Feace," Mr. Henry Wattorson spoke sub- 
stantially as follows : 

1 believe that, at this moment, the people of th< 
United States are nearer together in all that con 
stitutes kindred feeling and Interest than the; 
have been at any time since the adoption of thi 
federal constitution. If it were not so, 1 shouU 
hardly venture to come here and talk to you as 
am going to talk tonight. As it is, surrouiide( 
though I be by union soldiers, my bridges burned 
and every avenue of escape cut ofl', I am not in th 
least discouraged or alarmed. On the contrary, 
never felt safer or happier or more at home. In 
deed, I tliiuk that, supported ijy your i)resenc 
ftnd sustained by tiiese commissary stores, I coiih 
stand a siege of several mouths and hold ou 
against incredible odds. It is wonderful how cir 
oumstances alter cases ; for it was not always sc 

I iim one of tlje many witnesses who live to tel 
the story of a journey to the moon and back ! 1 
may not be that 1 have any marvels of jiersouc 
adventure or any prodigies of individual valor t 
relate, but I do not owe my survival to the pre 
caution taken by a member of the confederat 
battery commanded by the brave Capiain Howe! 
of Georgia. It was the habit of this person to j: 
to the rear whenever the battery got v«ell uud^ 
fire. At last Captain Howell called him up ai 
admonished him th.it, it the breach of duty was r 
peated, he would shoot him down as he went wit 
out a word. Ihe reply came on the instar 
"That's all right cap*n ; that's all right ; you o 
shoot me; but Fll be d.idburned if I'm going 
let them darn' d yaukees do it!" 1 at least g 
you the opportunity to try, and I am much y 
debtor that, in mj case, your marksmanship v 
so defective. 

You have been told that the war is over. I th 
that 1, myself, have heard that observation 
am glad of it. Roses smell sweeter than gunp 
der-'for everyday uses, the carviug-kniie is jf 
ferable to the bayonet, or the saber ; and, i ' 
contest for first choice lietween cannon balls 
wine corks, I have a decided prejudice in f;i|s 
of the latter! , 

The war is over; and it is well over. Ood rei 
and the government at Washineton still lives 
am glad o£ that. I can conceive notnnig w' 
for our-elves, nothing worse for our childten, t~ 
what might have been if the war had eudedjQ 
erwise, leaving two exhausted combatants t|it 
come the prey of foreign intervention audi, 
ploniacy, setting the clock of civilization bjJj. 
century, and splitting the noblest of the cL_ 
nents into five or si.x weak and warring rr 
lies, like those of South America, to repeat if 
new world the mistakes of the old. f,^ 

The war is over, truly ; and, let me repeatJis 
well over. If anything was wanting to proly 
its teriniuMtioD from housetops and doorpjth 
the land, that little brush we had hist sprinjlr. 
Signer Macaroni furnished it. As to the tof _ 
an electric bell, the whole people rallied tf. " 
brave words of the secretary of state, and, a ^ 
moment, sections and parties sunk out oW^ 
and thought in one over-mastering sentimbn 
racehood and nationality. J 

I shall not stop to inquire whether the wajas 
us better than we were. It certainly m ^^ 
better acquainted, and, on the whole, it so , 
me that we are none the worse tor that "•'• 

acquaintance. The truth is, the trouble b 's- ^ „„„„i, .^^ 

us was never more than skiu deep; and 1 ty for all their soft and careless grace are vet as 
riou.s thing about it is Uiat it was not oi ja, strong as hooks of steel! Thev hold tr>irpti,or .. 

anyhow! It was the black skin, not a whi to- ' "'"t'-ri ..»".•>- —i „../ om Logetner a 

that brought it about. g^^ 

As I sec it, our great sectional controver 
from tirst to last, the gradual evolution of 
pie from darkness to light, with no charts < 
to guide them, and no experience to les- 
•way. re- 

xne framers of our constitution foun( He 
selves unable to fix decisively and to def j^^ 
curately the exact relation of the states jj. 
federal government. On that point th^ . 
what may be described as an "open poii''''" 
through that open clause, as through a 
door, the grim specter of discussion stalll^ 
was attended on one hand by African slavfc* 
the other hand by sectional jealousy, and bets. , _ 
this trio of evil spirits, the household flower of 
peace was t(jrn from the lintel and tossed into the 
flames of war. 

> the beginning, all of us were guilty, and 

,~^/.y guilty, lor African slavery. It was the 

' "/ fortune of the north llr.st to find out that 
3 labor was not nrofitable. So, very sensibly, 



It sola Its Slaves to ti. , wnicn verv oiq-A, 

trously, pursued the , . .ion Tjnic at-Jast it is 
done Its perfect .work; tne south sees now a^^ the 
nortli saw before it, that the system of slavery as 

cnsHfpct'f',"'^'"""'^ ''^■""' '••■«'"'«' clumsiest and 
co.stlieRt labor system on earth, and that when we 
took the held to tight lor it. we set out upon a 
fool's eriand. Under slave labor, the yield f cot^ 
ton never re.ached five millions bales Under 
free labor. It has never lalhn below that liguie 
^eMrT/'^'.^T"^'"*^'*" "'-"^ '""i seven, untftlfs 
bates. * **' '^'''"^ "*'^'"'-'' "'"« i"!''-^" 

„ J^r;^,.*^'J*^ *^^® ^^^^''l? **°'"y- ^ ^"1 »«t liero to talk 
politics of course. But I j,ut it to vuu whether 
tliiit IS not a pretty good showing for free black 
labor, and whether, with sue), a showing the 
southern whites can afford any other than'i st 
and kiucl treatiuent to the blacks, without whom 
indeed the south would be a briar patch, ancr half 
ground'."''^ ^"'^ ''"''^"'^ ^ raping holLin-the 
~ Gentlemen, I beg that you will not be appre- 
heusive. I know lull well that this is neither a 
time nor place lor abstract economics; and I am 

t>«^;*'r."ii*"^^^ "■'-'■•? "'"'' ^ dissertation upo k 
free trade, or iree silver. I came, priniarilv ro 
bow my head and to pay my measure of lioma-e 
to the statue that was unveiled today The 
career and the name which that statife c.i ! 
memorates belong to me no less than to you. When 
I follow hiin to the grave-proud to appear i 
his obsequies, tlHmgh as the obscurest of those 
who bore any oflicral jnirt therein-1 felt that! 
was helping to bury, not only a great man but -i 
rue friend From that day to Fhis the " o v of 
the life and death of General G.rant has more and 
more impressed and touched me 

I never allowed myself to make his acquaint- 
ance until he had quitted the white house. The 
period ot his political activity was full of n - 
couth and unsparing partisan c()ntentloii. It was 
a kind of civil war. I had my duty to do, and I 
did not dare trust myself to the subduing influ- 
ence of what I was sure must follow friendly re- 
lations between such a man as he was and sitcli a 
man as I knew myself to be. In this I was not 
niistaken, as the sequel proved. I n^et 
him for the tirst time beneath mv .iwn 
vine and tg tree, and a hajipy scries n[ 
accidents, thereafter, gave me the oi)portunitv to 
meet him often and to knr.w him w^Il. He was 
the embodiment of simplicity, inteirritv and 
courage; every inch a general, a soldier and a 
man; but in the circumstances of his last illness 
a figure of heroic proportions for the contempia,- 
tiouol the ages. I recall nothing in history To 
sublime as the spectacle of that brave spirit 




for the 



be 



from the jaws ot death a little somethrii< 
support of wife and children when he war^rolig" 
If he had done nothing else, that would have 
made his exit from the world an immortal epic ' 

A little while after I came home from the last 
scene of all. 1 fouu<l that a woman's hand had col- 
lected the insignia I had -won. i,. the magnificent' 
melancholy pageaut-the orders assigning me to 
duty and the funeral scarfs and badges-Sn m| 
grouped and framed them; unbid3en, silently 
tenderly ; and when I rertecte<l that ti.e hands that 
d!d this were those of a loving southern woma , 
whose father had fallen on the confederate s de 
in the battle I said: "The war indeea is over -let us 
t'^J^.JJf''''^'^ ,',''^''^1*""^"= soldiers; comrades; 
the silken folds that twine about us her4 



ihi/ A'®°'I'VI"^ '''■ e^"*^^* nation i for, realizing. .bi 
the truth at last- with no wounds to be healed f' 
and no stmgs of defeat to remember-tbe south ' 
*^^'? .',"„.*'"^ north, as simple and as truly as was I 
said .-i.opo years years ago in the, far-aw.iv inea,b.w 
upon the margin ot the mystic sea : ""Whither 
thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I 

Jhy God^my Go'd.'''""^"^ ^^^" '" "^^" ^^^"^^«' ^^'^ 

» y 

Caligraph Writing Machine 'is the best for 
telegraph purposes. Never out of order. "*'"'' ***'^ 



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